Cor blimey Guvnor, I've 'ad a few of these. In fact the CBR600F is held in high esteem by myself, as it was one of these that got me back into biking. I'd had a few years without a bike, due to a mortgage etc. and decided it was time enough. I had to get back into a two wheeled frame of mind. I'd been chatting to a mate of mine that had recently had a go on an FZR600, (this was 1989 remember) and he loved the thing, and recommended that 600 4 strokes were the way to go. As this had come from a 2 stroke tuning genious, I was impressed. So I decided to have a look around.

As luck would have it, a chap at work had a very nice red and white CBR600FK for sale. I duly got my home improvement loan and furnished the inside of my garden shed with another shed, no, sorry, a CBR600FK. What a blast, this thing would get to 100 mph in no time at all - what a difference from my old RD400F!

Trying out new tyres was fun too. I had to have a Pirelli something or other fitted to the rear and duly binned the bike 10 miles later giving it loads coming out of my favourite roundabout on a nice fresh part of unworn tyre. That taught me an expensive lesson!!

But I was hooked. 600s' were excellent fun, so after 18 months or so, I decided it was time for another. I'd just been made redundant, didn't have another job, but did have a nice cheque for about 3 grand and a very decent bike to part ex, so off I went and bought a brand new CBR600FN. This was the vastly improved one and as soon as you rode it you could tell where and why. The only problem was the crap Michelin MX 59/89's or whatever they were. Seemed to slide around a lot, but I was still learning what biking was all about and even though I thought I was fast, I was actually crap and dog slow.

Anyway, I had this CBR for a couple of months and was left a windfall of several grand by a dear old Aunt that had passed on. "Save it for a rainy day" were the immortal words of my Dad, but hey, this was 1992 and didn't he know that Honda had just released the benchmark Fireblade?? No he didn't, but I did, so I went and bought one, but that's another story.

After a couple of Blades and an impending move to Australia being scuppered by immigration, BASTARDS!!, I had a few quid, so I needed another bike. I scoured the papers and came across another CBR600FN, that strangely enough had been the demo 600 for P&H when I worked there during the summer of '92, (sounds like a song innit?), so I went off to Worthing to see this bike and sure enough, it was pretty much as I remembered. I paid the guy what he wanted and rode home in the pouring rain. It had a Dragon on the front and an MP7 on the back. As I approched the Buck Barn crossroads, there was a tidal flow washing across the road., (it was also dark), I hit this water at just over 100 mph and the rear end of the bike aquaplaned sideways at a hell of a rate. By the time it straightened up, I was heading for oblivion, but my masterly wet weather skills kept me on the road, but it was a hasty stop in the Cock Inn after that for a beer or two and about 10 Marlboro's to calm me down again.

Anyway, this bike accompanied me on my first trip to the TT in 95, and I loved it, the TT as well that is. We set up the suspension beautifully and it handeled like a dream. It was the first time I experienced what a well set up bike could do. Before it was factory settings and doing what I thought was right, which was listening to magazines and stuff, which is all crap for the road. I had to change the clutch as with it previously being a demo from P&H, it had been fried, but the chap that had bought it only doddled around with his 8 year old son on the back, so never noticed, or maybe he did and thought it was big job, which it isn't. When I sold the bike, I sold it for 200 quid more than I bought it, so it was worth it.

CBR600s' are the business. You'll be hard pushed to find a more user friendly steed anywhere in the motorcycling world. I nearly even bought another when I was in the throws of deliberating over a VTR and TL, but I wanted to experience a V Twin then. The new CBR is a bit bland I feel and not up to the current R6 etc. but it's not aimed at that single purpose role so much. It's still a very capable bike and will always outsell anything else as it is so damn user friendly and easy to ride.